Using Winshell 3.3.2.5 texteditor on MiKTeX 2.9 (32 bit version) on Windows 7 computer. Everything exactly set up as on my laptop directory-wise, where pdfLaTeX works perfectly. But here all I get is the error message: Sorry, but "C:\program files (x86)\Miktex 2.9\miktex\bin\pdflatex.exe" did not succeed.The logfile after trying a LaTeX compilation (with the same result) tells me

I have seen similar MiKTeX error messages from time to time, and it often turned out to be solved after a new installation (plus this or that...). I don't use MiKTeX, so I cannot help with MiKTeX-specific errors but with any LaTeX error I could help. You could ask on the MiKTeX mailing list.

I use TeX Live 2017. That's also for Windows PCs. You could consider that TeX installation, supported by the TeX Users Group. The TeX documents themselves are independent of the choice of MiKTeX or TeX Live.